


Tommy's Person of the Year Award

by FluffyLlamacorn



Series: Person of the Year-verse [1]
Category: Young Avengers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 21:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5944201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyLlamacorn/pseuds/FluffyLlamacorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing out on half the year is no excuse for Tommy to skip his most important new years tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tommy's Person of the Year Award

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, let's get this ball rolling before I think myself out of posting fanfic for another while. Kinda way more worried than when I post fanart, but I think that just means I'm more invested in this? I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.

"You know, it's January first," Tommy suddenly realized.

"Wow, really?" Billy snarked, which wasn’t all that rude considering they had spent all day celebrating the new year by doing absolutely nothing. Well, they were also partly celebrating that they had just finished saving the world, but mainly that it was the day after New Years and that's always a lazy day. They were at the Kaplan's place, which was surprisingly nice when it wasn't being controlled by an interdimensional parasite. It was apparently a tradition for the Young Avengers to spend January first there, because all the Kaplans asked about was who the new members were.

"Yes, really and you know what that means," Tommy continued. He sounded very pleased with himself, unlike several of the older members of the Young Avengers who start groaning.

"What does it mean?" David asked, looking away from his book to send a glance at Tommy. David had situated himself on a comfy couch next to the bookshelf very early on and had read through a couple of books during the lazy morning and afternoon in between their story telling. Tommy had declared the rest of the couch for himself by lying across the length of it. It was probably designed for three people, but even with his legs dangling out over the opposite edge, Tommy had still ended up with his head resting on David's leg. David's free hand had gotten tangled up in Tommy's hair at some point while he was reading one of Billy's mom's books about psychology. It was a modern take on an old theory and David knew about the old theory, but had gotten enraptured in this new reading. It solved all of the problems he hadn't realized had been in it.

"It means it's time for Tommy's Person of the Year Award!" Tommy announced.

David heard Kate sigh loudly.

Tommy sat up so he could do it right and put on his most clichéd announcer voice. "And the nominees are..."

"I wonder who the first one's going to be," Teddy said with mock interest in the pause Tommy left for dramatic effect.

"Me, for my overall level of awesomeness!" Tommy announced.

"This is _such_ a surprise," Billy responded in the same tone.

"Ms. America, for punching a black hole in the face!" Then he paused and slipped back into his normal voice. "That is a thing that happened, right?"

"That's a thing that happened," America smirked.

"David!" Tommy continued, back in presenter mode. "For going with me to check out the Patriot thing and then, you know, hunting it down and getting me back and stuff." His presenter persona had slipped away as he finished his sentence. At the end he was displaying a vulnerability David was sure he was uncomfortable with.

"You'd do it for me," David smiled. He was certain that Tommy remembered saying those words more clearly than David remembered hearing them.

"Heh, yeah," Tommy smirked. They spent a moment smiling at each other before Tommy remembered that the rest of the room was still staring at him. "And, uhm, the last nominee is Kate for, uh, general badassitude and also that time she and Clint did that thing with the circus and the boats and stuff. That was this year, right?"

"Last February," Kate nodded. "It was pretty great."

"What, I don't get a nomination this year?" Billy asked.

"You were supposed to be nominated for finally snapping out of your funk, but then you were disqualified on account of summoning a transdimensional monster thing that threatened reality and also the shirt you wore at New Years," Tommy informed him.

"Fair enough," Billy accepted.

"Now, can I have a drum roll, please?" Tommy asked, which Noh-Varr dutifully supplied him with. "And the winner is..."

Then something weird happened. The moment before he announced the winner, Tommy’s expression changed from one of joking around to a serious, if not distraught expression, one David was surprised to see him wear in such a public situation. The drum roll died out without Tommy reacting, still lost in whatever thought occurred to him. Noh did another drum roll and Tommy finally reacted when that one finished.

"David," he said weakly, his tone implying he didn't quite believe it himself. "The winner is David."

"Wait, what?" Billy asked.

"I'm honored," David smiled. He tried to catch Tommy's eye and calm him down, but Tommy kept looking straight ahead, still lost in whatever thinking made him choose David. "Do I win a prize?"

"Mainly the pride," Tommy smirked at him, but it was just an act, none of his usual humor behind it.

David reached out, wanting to help him, but Tommy stood up from the couch, pulling away from him. "I gotta... I gotta get some air," Tommy said, still not quite there. "I'll be back."

"Pick some ice cream up on the way back, won't ya?" Kate called after him, obviously not as worried as David. "You've lost your protection from helping out."

"Did I do something wrong?" David asked, still looking at the empty couch where Tommy had just been.

Kate scoffed. "You're Person of the Year, you don't get to have faults today."

"You also don't have to help with menial tasks such as cleaning up and doing the dishes," Billy supplied.

"I mean, I don't mind," David started.

"No!" Billy insisted. "Not when he's finally let go of using the title to protect himself."

"I take it this hasn't happened before?" America asked.

"Let's just say that I was once nominated for being an 'almost perfect human being' and I still lost to him," Kate said. "You must really have made an impression, David."

"Well, I am pretty great," David graciously accepted.

"Oh no, is the smugness contagious?" Teddy asked. "Did Tommy infect you by naming you Person of the Year?"

“Maybe it’s migrated away from Tommy and he can start being a valuable member of society again,” Billy joked.

They laughed a bit, threw some more jokes around, until David got distracted by the empty couch again. "Do you think he's coming back?"

"He better," Kate said as she decided to occupy the space he left behind. "He's getting ice cream for us. If you're really worried, you can text him or something. He ought to listen to orders from you, at least for today."

"How much has he tried to get out of this Person of the Year business?" David asked.

"As he likes to point out, he didn't make the rules, he's just following them," Billy told him with a smile.

"But didn't he?" Noh asked.

"Yeah, but it pissed Eli off and that's enough to keep him going," Kate remembered fondly.

***

Tommy did come back and brought ice cream from all around the states. (He would have gone further, but he figured they would miss his wonderful company.) He ended up eating most of the tubs himself, since speedsters had a tendency towards high metabolisms, though it wasn’t like the others didn't get any.

David ended up on the couch again sometime towards the end of the evening and was finishing up the psychology book before he had to go when Tommy sat down next to him on the couch and leaned his entire body into him. "Hey," Tommy greeted as he put his head on David's shoulder. It seemed more tired than affectionate, though it was plenty of both.

"Hey," David greeted as he leaned his own head on top of Tommy's and put the book away. He was in the conclusion anyway, it could wait.

"Thanks," Tommy said quietly and David didn’t force him to elaborate.

"You're welcome," he just said.

They sat quietly together for a long time. They were alone in the living room as the rest of the Young Avengers were discussing plans for how and when to get home out in the kitchen or maybe they had moved on to when to meet again. David had left a while ago to finish his book.

"Do I still have a job?" Tommy suddenly wondered out loud.

"They can't legally fire you for unintended supernatural influence in your life interfering with your work," David said. "Which doesn't mean they can't have found some other excuse to do it, but if they’ve fired you and you can be bothered, you could probably win a lawsuit."

"Hah, for that job?" Tommy scoffed. "I stayed away for as long as I could afford anyway."

"Never have I understood you better," David smiled. He was pretty sure Tommy couldn’t tell, leaning on each other as they were, but it came naturally.

"What about you?" Tommy asked. "Do you still have your job?"

"I, uhm, may have yelled at the boss for refusing to lift a finger to get you back when you went missing in the middle of voluntarily protecting his property," David admited. "So, no."

"Mmm, that's worth having to wash up," Tommy said as he tried to snuggle closer to David, who leaned into it.

"I'm glad you think so," David said. "Now I just need to find a new job."

"Well, at least now your latest superheroing isn't a bunch of terrorist mutants," Tommy reassured him. "Being an Avenger looks way better on a resume."

"Young Avenger," David reminded him.

"Young Avengers are officially recognized as Avengers according to Captain America and are people really going to fight him on that?" Tommy challenged him.

"I guess," David accepted.

"Yeah, come on man, now you can get a job that will at least almost start to challenge you."

"My last job challenged my patience."

“Smart ass.”


End file.
